Joe,I've been following up on your reply. Yes, the tune is Turkey in the Straw. Sorry, but I can't remember any more of it. Like "Oh, the cow kicked Nellie etc," it's probably a one-verse song as you suggest. I did a Google search using "louise manny" as the subject. I found 80 or so hits but no mention of the song.

I'll explain why I searched Louise Manny. As I said in my original posting, I'm pretty sure the song came from the Miramichi River area of New Brunswick, Canada. Dr. Manny, a native of Maine, was a great collector (in the Lomax tradition) of folk music on the Miramichi. It's probably in one of her collections. I'll have to visit the NB Archives next time I'm in Fredericton.

But, I just know there are some Miramichiers out there who check in at Mudcat. And I know they will have heard the song. Just as all Miramichiers know about all the strange and secretive animals that frequent their spruce forests - the Sevogle Pounder, the Dungarvon Whooper, the Side Hill Gouger. This little fellow gets his name from the very curious habit of always walking around the side of a hill in a clockwise direction. Thus, he evolved so as to have his two right legs considerably shorter than his two left legs. So, his breed is forever doomed to walk in that direction around a hill. If they tried to go the other way, they would surely tumble to their death. I know about these animals. In my career as a geologist, I heard them as ate my lunch beside one of the many streams that feed the Miramichi, or as I slept in one of its countless old log cabins. GeneJ